The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously unwinding rolled-up tapes, for example, seal tapes for covering container blanks of paper base laminate over an end face thereof.
Apparatus of the type mentioned and heretofore known include one which comprises at least two rewinders for individually supporting rolled-up tapes of fusible material, means for unwinding the tapes from the rewinders successively one at a time, and means for joining the tail end of one of the tapes unwound first to the leading end of the following tape. The joining means comprises a pair of rollers arranged on opposite sides of a tape unwinding path and movable toward and away from each other. An adhesive tape is manually affixed to the leading end of the following tape, and the rollers are moved toward each other to join the tail end of the preceding tape to the leading end of the following tape with the adhesive tape. An excessive portion of the preceding tape is then manually cut off from its tail end with scissors.
With the above apparatus, the joining work is performed chiefly manually and therefore invariably involves errors. Although the excessive portion of the tape is to be cut off with scissors as described above, it is difficult to completely remove the excessive portion. If a large portion of the tape is left unremoved, the remaining portion will cause trouble to the work of the subsequent process.